


Christmas Surprises

by Sterling_Jay



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas in Midvale, Coming Out, Coming out of the superhero closet, Diversions, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Kara can't lie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-16
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-08 21:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8863984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sterling_Jay/pseuds/Sterling_Jay
Summary: Carter's going to his father's, so Cat's going to be alone on Christmas. That quickly changes when Kara stops by to invite Cat to Christmas in Midvale with her family and Maggie Sawyer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magicsophicorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/gifts).



Cat growled as she hung up the phone, making to throw it across the room but instead setting it down hard on her desk.

Carter's father had called and requested he have him over for Christmas, to get to know his new step-mother.

Loathe as she was to admit it, Carter liked the woman, and she seemed decent enough...and Carter had been the one to ask, first. He'd brought it up over dinner the previous night, and Cat had felt her stomach turn to lead, her throat tight and her expression frozen into a false smile.

And she'd said yes.

Of course she had. Anything Carter wanted, he got. Within reason, of course, and this was...completely reasonable, she told herself, clawing at the dampness on her face.

"Cat?" She turned to see Kara at the door of her office, smiling hesitantly at her.

"Kara." She cleared her throat, hoping to erase the shakiness from her voice. "Come in."

She stood from behind her desk, going to the couch, stopping at the bar first for a glass of M&Ms.

"Are...are you okay, Cat?" The question was just as hesitant as the smile, and Cat resisted the urge to smile at the care she could hear in Kara's voice, rolling her eyes instead to pretend away the tears.

"Of course, I'm fine. Did you need something?"

"Oh, well, not _need_ need, I just," she tucked her hair back behind her ear, fiddled with her glasses, "I was just wondering about your Christmas plans?" Cat raised an eyebrow, wondering how much of the conversation Kara had overheard with her super hearing. "It's just," more fidgeting, "Alex and I are going back to Midvale for the holidays, but she's bringing a friend along." She turned to look at Cat earnestly, "I was hoping maybe you'd be free to go with us?"

Cat tilted her head curiously at the invitation, causing Kara's gaze to drop and a blush to rise on her cheeks.

"Carter, he'd be invited too, of course. Not that either of you need to go, but I'd like it a lot if you did, if you're able to."

Cat thought of her barely revised holiday plans, the ticket to somewhere warm she'd planned to buy, only to lay in the sun and tan and dwell and seethe on being alone for the holidays.

She grabbed Kara's hand.

"I'd love to."


	2. Chapter 2

The four of them stood awkwardly outside of Kara's apartment on the sidewalk, bags and presents stacked beside the car.

"Scully," Cat greeted Alex, a teasing smile on her face.

"Grant," Alex returned, giving her a stiff nod and sneaking a questioning glance at an oblivious Kara.

"Sawyer," the newcomer said, stepping in front of Cat and offering a handshake. "Maggie Sawyer. I'm work at the NCPD with Alex."

"Cat Grant," she said, taking the hand, looking between Maggie and Alex with knowing eyes and a grin. "A pleasure, I'm sure."

Alex scowled at her, putting an arm around Maggie and practically dragging her away, Kara walking up a few seconds later to watch the scene.

"What's that about?"

"Couldn't say."

 

* * *

 

The ride to Midvale was awkward, silent, Maggie and Kara's attempts at conversation stilted and quickly dying. Alex sat in the back seat with Cat, alternating between looking worried and sick, and glaring at Cat.

"I don't know what you think you're doing with my sister," Alex hissed when they hit a rest stop, Kara speeding out of the car to the restroom, "but you need to watch yourself."

" _She_ invited _me_ , Scully." She tapped through her phone nonchalantly. "As a friend. If you have a problem with it, take it up with her."

 

* * *

 

Christmas dinner an hour after they arrived wasn't much better, Alex digging into her food like she hadn't eaten in a week and Maggie, Kara and Eliza all watching her worriedly.

Cat observed quietly, exchanging sympathetic glances with Kara and Maggie when she could.

"What's with Scully," she finally asked Maggie when they were clearing the plates. The three Danvers women had gone outside for family time, their guests reassuring them that they didn't mind doing the clean-up.

"She...we're coming out to Eliza. Alex has some pretty bad nerves about it, and I think Kara invited you so she wouldn't be a third wheel? I don't know. Alex keeps telling me you're 'up to something', plotting against Kara." She shrugged. "You seem fine to me."

"Yes, well, being her overly-demanding boss before becoming her friend likely didn't help matters." She gave Maggie a once-over, nodding at her. "You and Scully-"

"Alex," Maggie said firmly.

"Fine. You and _Alex_ seem to be a good match, for all her nerves about telling her mother. I know how stressful coming out can be." Cat gave her a casually appraising look. "I assume it'll be during dessert?" Maggie nodded. "If it seems to be going badly and you need a diversion," she trailed off, Maggie nodding her appreciation.

The three Danvers women reentered the house, Alex and Eliza both lightly shivering, even under their thick winter coats, Kara still looking warm in a thin sweater despite the biting wind.

"Time for cocoa and pie, everyone," Eliza said cheerfully, doling out jobs to everyone so they could sit and enjoy sooner.

Eliza herself took to cutting the pie, Alex and Maggie working on the hot chocolate and talking quietly in their corner of the kitchen. Alex threw a dirty look at Cat, and she knew Maggie had just relayed her offer.

Kara lightly bumped her hip at the kitchen island with a smile, pulling the drawer open to grab forks and spoons.

"What's got you all smiley," Cat asked, bumping her back with a light chuckle.

"I'm here with my family, and the people who are important to us...I'm happy."

"You're a sap," Cat said teasingly, squeezing Kara's arm and taking the silverware to the living room, Kara trailing behind.

They laid out the silverware on the coffee table, Eliza setting out the slices of pie and Maggie and Alex coming up with the mugs of hot chocolate, a giant container of whipped cream held tightly under Alex's arm.

"Don't use the whole thing this time, Kara, I mean it. Leave some for the rest of us."

"Alright Alex, don't worry. I know how this one is, I've got a few extras hidden around," Eliza said, smiling at the excited look on Kara's face. "For later, young lady."

Everyone sat with their pie and cocoa, passing around the whipped cream. Eliza took an armchair, content to sit and watch and sip on her cocoa. To her side sat Cat and Kara on the floor in front of the couch, and in front of her, Alex in an armchair of her own, Maggie sitting on the arm rest, legs tucked into the cushion.

"You're welcome to take the couch, Maggie, I don't think Cat or Kara will mind."

"Oh," the detective seemed to realize where she was sitting, "No, that's alright, I'm comfortable sitting here if Alex is." Alex stiffened a bit but nodded, smiling tightly at her mother.

"We're good here."

"Alright...well. Good. I'm glad my girls have finally brought some friends over. I wasn't expecting anyone other than them over this year, so it's a nice surprise." She chuckled a bit to herself. "Maybe one of these days they'll bring some nice men home."

The air in the room seemed to change, even as Eliza kept chuckling to herself. The other four women exchanged wary glances.

Alex set her cocoa down, lightly wrapping her hand around Maggie's ankle.

"About that, Mom," her voice was artificially light, "you see..."

"Oh, you've met someone! Why didn't you bring him home, tell me about him!"

"Uh. Right. We, we work together, at the-" she looked around the room, eyes falling on Cat and she glared, not able to say it in front of someone not in-the-know, "we work together. In different departments."

"Is he strong, smart, handsome? What's his name?"

Cat put her hand on Kara's bent knee, having felt her go stiff. She gave a knowing look to Maggie whose hand had already gone to Alex's shoulder, offering her comfort, and then shared a nod with the woman to reiterate her offer of a diversion. Maggie slowly nodded back.

"Definitely strong," Alex breathed out, looking anywhere but her mother, "smart too. Terrible at pool," she laughed nervously, Maggie rubbing her back. "Really, really pretty."

"That sounds...wait, pretty? Alex?" Her gaze went between her daughter and the woman sitting next to her. "Alex," her voice was more serious.

"Mom," her voice trembled a bit, but came out strong anyways, "Mom, I'm gay. I think I always have been. Maggie and I," they looked at each other, Maggie smiling down at her supportively, "we're together, and we have been for a while. I'm...I think we're really happy," Maggie nodded her agreement, "I haven't felt this happy in a relationship in..." she huffed, "ever, really."

The room waited with baited breath for Eliza's careful response.

"Aren't you a bit...old to be coming out, Alex?" Alex froze, and Cat felt Kara's hand intertwine with her own, shaking nearly as much as her sister was, they and Maggie waiting in trepidation for Eliza to continue. "I'm...you know I'm not against gay people, but sweetie, don't people usually figure this kind of stuff out when they're younger? Maybe...Maybe you're just in a slump, when it comes to men. I know that," she turned to Maggie, "Detective, you seem like a very nice woman, but, Alex, you've never seemed interested in women before."

"Mom, I'm gay," her voice came out as a whisper. "I'm a _lesbian_ ," her voice got stronger, even as it cracked at the edges, "in a _relationship_ with Maggie, who's _also_ a woman."

"Alex," she started shaking her head, Alex's expression getting thunderous and Maggie's panicked.

Maggie flicked her wide-eyed gaze over to Cat and she gave the slightest of nods, asking Cat to make good on her offer.

She squeezed Kara's hand and then leaned into her, murmuring the words quietly into her ear, making sure it was still loud enough for Eliza to hear.

"Well this doesn't bode well for our own announcement, now does it, darling?"

Immediately Kara blushed red, turning to look at Cat with a confounded look, Eliza's attention turning from the couple in the chair to the one at her feet.

"Excuse me?"

Cat flicked her eyes between Alex and the stairs, encouraging Maggie to remove her from the situation while she had the chance.

"Catherine?"

Cat stood to her full height, Kara following her up, their hands still together, bodies blocking Eliza's view of the fleeing couple.

"That's my mother's name, Mrs. Danvers, and I'd like to know exactly how old is too old to come out and announce a relationship with one of your daughters?"


	3. Chapter 3

Eliza stormed outside, demanding 'no funny business' in her house while she got some air, unable to deal with the shock of both of her daughters apparently coming out to her on the same night- especially one of them apparently dating her older boss.

Cat sat heavily on the couch when Eliza went out the door, covering her face with a groan. There'd been quite a bit of yelling, some insults that might've cut her a bit deeper than she'd like to admit...but for once, Kara Danvers, the woman who cannot lie, had managed it. Well enough to fool Eliza, well enough to almost convince Cat herself that they'd been secretly dating since just after Thanksgiving. She slowly uncovered her eyes, looking up at Kara, still standing protectively beside her, but studiously not looking at her.

"Kara?" A grunt of a reply. "Kara, you can't lie." A shrug. "You can't lie convincingly about anything. You get jumpy and flustered..." Cat sat up straight with the realization. "Kara?"

"I've already come out once tonight, Cat," she said brusquely, dropping sullenly onto the cushion beside Cat, "what more do you want me to say?"

Cat stared at the wall in front of her, thinking.

Kara had come out to Eliza, defending Cat from any and every accusation of impropriety, of taking advantage, of being some sort of cougar or cradle snatcher- going so far as to reveal her 'secret' identity of Supergirl, and her true age due to the Phantom Zone, either not remembering or not caring that they weren't really together, that she hadn't already discussed these things with Cat.

In fact, while Cat had provided the seed of the distraction, Kara had provided the rest, knocking back every one of Eliza's objections to their (fake) relationship deftly, like she'd already thought through each and every one.

She reached a hand out to Kara, pulling her close.

"Say you'll go on a date with me when we get back to National City?"

Kara stared at her with wide eyes and then nodded, glancing between her lips and the stairs. Cat pulled at her collar, drawing her in to kiss her soundly.

"Let's go check on them."

 

* * *

 

Alex laid in her bed facing the wall, Maggie curled around her when they walked in, lifting her head from the pillow to check who was coming in.

"Eliza will come around. If nothing else, she'll be more concerned about my 'corrupting' Kara than she will be about your relationship," Cat said, waving a hand flippantly as she sat beside Kara on the other bed.

Alex rolled over, nudging Maggie out of the way.

"If you hurt my sister," she threatened, Maggie pulling her back down.

"Alex," she said warningly, "They were faking."

"What?"

"Cat agreed to be our diversion, in case it didn't go well with your mom."

" _Were_ faking, Sawyer, _were_. For all of half an hour while tearing down Eliza's heteronormativity." She went to hold Kara's hand again, smiling softly when Kara's head came down onto her shoulder. "We'll be going on a date sometime after we get back to the city. I asked her out, about two minutes after I realized that Kara can't lie to save her life."

Alex stared at the two of them and then laughed, her foul mood slipping off of her.

"She really can't, can she?"

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I tagged this 'Christmas fluff' and then ended it without Eliza coming back and accepting her girls, which didn't feel right. It's pretty short, but here's some reconciliation for them! And, one more surprise for Maggie.

They sat on the beds talking about anything other than the elephant in the room, Maggie and Alex holding each other, Kara smiling when she looked at Cat's hand intertwined with her own. She lowered her glasses to look through the walls, standing up as she saw a shivering Eliza walking back towards the house.

  
"She's coming," she said, letting go of Cat's hand. "I think Alex and I should go down and talk to her first, and...see if we can work things out with her before you two have to deal with her again."

* * *

"I want to apologize, girls." Eliza looked between her daughters sitting in front of her at the kitchen table, the two of them exchanging cautious looks. "Alex, neither you nor Maggie deserved to have me doubt your relationship when you came out to me. Of course I accept you, and Maggie is welcome here at any time, I just," she shook her head with a wry grin, "never expected this for you. For either of you. Or, I did, but after you graduated without coming out, I thought I'd figured wrong."

  
"Wait." Alex held up a hand, the other going to her forehead. "Wait, is that why you started bringing home all the PFLAG stuff when I was a junior in high school?" Eliza nodded, smiling at the dumbfounded look on Alex's face.

  
"I was ready to be supportive-"

  
"You kept asking me if I had anything to tell you about me and my girl friends at school-"

  
"Because I wanted to be supportive of you and whoever you were with. And," she shrugged, "if you wanted to keep telling me that you were dating some boy, I wasn't going to push you out of the closet before you were ready. That's why I reacted the way I did. 'A little late to be coming out', because I'd already expected it years ago!"

  
Alex sat back, jaw dropped, Kara nudging her out of her stupor. "And _you_ , young lady," she said to Kara, who suddenly looked sheepish, "I have been worried about you and your eventual love-life since you started obsessively watching those teen dramas with Alex."

  
"It wasn't obsessively," she mumbled, Alex patting her on the shoulder.

  
"It was pretty obsessively." She laughed at Kara's pout, squishing her cheeks playfully until Eliza tapped a finger on the table to regain their attention.

  
"It _was_ a pretty intense interest, sweetie. But you'd watch them all fall in and out and then back into love...but you didn't ever seem very interested in your own relationships outside of whatever it took to appear 'normal'. So I knew it would take someone pretty special to catch your attention and let them in. So. Is Cat that person?"

  
Kara flushed and nodded. "We didn't expect to get together this-" Alex elbowed her, wincing as she did, Kara realizing why she'd done it. "I mean. We didn't mean to...come out to you today." Alex let out a subtle sigh of relief, Eliza raising an eyebrow at Kara's backtracking. "But Cat," she wrung her hands together, "she's always been special to me. Even before we...before we started _dating_ ," she laughed in disbelief that she could say it, "she's always been amazing and sweet and dedicated and hardworking- she's the most _loving_ mother to her son, Carter-"

  
"And she's always thought the world of you as well," Cat said, wrapping her arms lightly around Kara's shoulders from behind, "even when she didn't show it as well as maybe she could have. I'm sorry, Maggie and I couldn't stand waiting upstairs any longer."

  
Maggie took her place behind Alex, a hand on her shoulder, Alex covering it with her own. "Mrs. Danvers, we both care very much about your daughters."

  
"And they care very much about you. Ladies." She shook her head. "I'm sorry for my behavior earlier. The way I reacted, Cat, the things I said to you- it's no excuse, but it was out of protectiveness towards my girls. Mis-aimed, maybe, but still. I hope you can forgive me."

  
"Of course I can."

  
"And I fully understand where you were coming from," Cat said, "I think I might've had the same reaction if it was my child. I say we forgive and forget."

  
"Thank you. And, now, I'm hoping we'll be able to have our Christmas festivities without any more surprises?"

  
Alex snorted. "As long as Kara and I don't have any Super missions, I think we can manage that." Eliza, Kara and Cat all laughed along, Maggie frozen at her shoulder.

  
"Wait, what?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm jesswritingsome on tumblr, and now JessWritingsome on twitter! Feel free to stop in and say hi.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm jesswritingsome on tumblr, and now JessWritingsome on twitter! Feel free to stop in and say hi.


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